Comments on: The Sins of Cingular

By: darin

darin — Mon, 16 Apr 2007 04:21:40 +0000

Well, This might be a seperate issue kind of……but maybe not. I am a current Verizon subscriber. My bill is $125 a month for 2 phones and 1500 anytimes minutes. So i decided I wanted to find a way to lower my bill. Well of couse the only lower plan is 700 anytime minutes. Why such a big gap?? Because they know we will pay for the more expensive plan. Also $6.00 a month for insurance when I still pay $50 for the phone to be replaced…..Why even call it insurance. At $72 a year it should be free. Basically Im looking for another provider now.

By: Chatterbox

Chatterbox — Mon, 29 Aug 2005 19:38:09 +0000

BEST WAY TO HANDLE CINGULAR FORCED CONVERSION OF YOUR AT&T WIRELESS SERVICE TO A NEW CINGULAR PHONE AND SERVICE:
Simply stop paying the bill.
New customers can still be added to all exisitng AT&T plans, TDMA, GSM, pre-paid and post paid. However, the Cingular policy is to NOT allow customers to make conversion to anything more affordable. The policy is to allow conversions only to HIGHER rate Cingular plans.
You will get better service and choices if you go into a Cingular store and pretend you are a new customer, buying a new phone and new service.
For me I found a better phone and plan with another carrier, for one phone. The other is on a great plan $100 per year with Cingular.
BUT BEFORE ABANDONING THE SERVICE ON THE PHONE I DID NOT LIKE…. LET IT RUN FOR 4 OR 5 MONTHS AND JUST DON'T PAY IT.
Once, you rationalize the poor customer service, refusal to convert the phone to the plan you really desired against the new rate $0.00. It's not such a bad deal for the last 5 to 6 months, pre or post contract.
Remember the caveat, “Buyer-beware”! Well every time you make another monthly payment you are letting the company take advantage of you. You would not keep paying a restaurant everyday if they gave you bad food. The same is true for your phone service.

By: hoodwinked

hoodwinked — Sat, 04 Jun 2005 22:15:12 +0000

No one seems to have noticed the whole “orphan” issue is a big scam that is part of an even bigger scam (and I'll leave it at three levels although it surely has many more). AT&T was busted into several “Baby Bells” back in the 1980's, one of which retaining the name and another is BellSouth. Check your local White Pages and notice Cingular is (after “aquiring” AT&T Cellular) now “Part of the BellSouth Family”. It's still the same people selling the same crap for more money, less value and tax looping, false reporting on earnings ect., ect….round and round we go…vaseline not included.

By: Anonymous

Anonymous — Thu, 28 Apr 2005 01:25:11 +0000

>>>Also: If someone was moved off a regular account and onto a regular one (or vise versa)

By: Anonymous

Anonymous — Thu, 28 Apr 2005 01:21:40 +0000

I used to work as a Customer Service Rep for T-Mobile. I could tell you more horror stories about customers getting screwed out of upgrades.
For example, something as simple as a mobile number change would reset people's discount elegibility (due to a computer glitch). Although we reps recognised it as a problem immediately, it took over 3 months for T-Mobile to even *recognise* the problem, let alone fix it. We weren't even given permission to override it, or even let a supervisor do it! Can you imagine how awful we felt telling the customer that they can't upgrade because of a COMPUTER GLITCH ?????
We were eventually given permission to do an override, but last time I checked, the problem still wasn't fixed (this went on for over a year).
Also: If someone was moved off a regular account and onto a regular one (or vise versa), it would reset their discount, NO MATTER HOW LONG THEY HAD BEEN WITH US!!!! We had some customers that were with us 2, 3, 4 or more years, and we couldn't upgrade them without charging full price (and last time I checked, we still weren't even allowed to override this!!!!).
Glad to be an ex-T-Mobile employee (actually I worked for an outsourcer, which was even worse). I'm sure they're all a b*tch to work for.
Jen
http://djjenx.proboards24.com

By: Anonymous

Anonymous — Wed, 27 Apr 2005 19:04:07 +0000

Ugly, Ugly and more ugly! I am one of the AT&T orphans. Luckily Mu contract is over in 3 days, 7 hours and counting seconds. So who is the next one to Rip me? Good question. Done the Verizon gig all the way back to US West Celluar. Verizon screwed up my bill more than I believed possible.
WHo should I try? No idea.

By: Anonymous

Anonymous — Mon, 25 Apr 2005 01:49:47 +0000

Personal effects of merger:
AT+T “free to go” plan was 6.67$ a month minutes good for 90 days. Awesome deal.
Cingular “No to go” is 15$ a month minutes good for 30 days. Not so good.
I let my dollars go elsewhere…
Switched to T-mobile prepaid for 8$ a month minutes good for 90 days. Plus I got a cool new phone.
Just switch, (if you can) nothing sends a better message than a shrinking customer base.

By: Anonymous

Anonymous — Sun, 24 Apr 2005 17:44:22 +0000

I signed up with Cinguar in Georgia where the service woked great and I had no complaints. Now that I have moved back to the boondocks of Illinois though the service is the worst in the area. I tried getting out of my contract when I went to get a local number and the paperwork clearly stated that I had 3 days to try out the network in this area and get out of the contract free if service was inadaquate. After discovering that service sucked in my area I tried to go and break my contract without paying the fee as the paperwork stated. They gave me nothing but a runaround and promises of a new tower in my town by the end of the 1st quarter '05. Maybe I should have pursued it further. That was in December. Now here I am in almost may, still no tower. I got fed up and recently signed a two year contract with verizon who gives me an 18% discount on the bill for being military. I am happy to say I have no complaints with them.

By: zenyenta

zenyenta — Sun, 24 Apr 2005 01:36:16 +0000

It's not one size fits all for cell phones, at least not yet. Right now, Sprint is the major provider that works best from my home. My husband and I are both very happy with it and are using our Sprint cellphones as our main phones. We don't even use the data plans, either. Neither ATT&T nor Cingular would work from our house. Other people have the opposite experience. If a few years, they'll probably all work almost everywhere.

By: debora

debora — Sat, 23 Apr 2005 18:44:04 +0000

My hubby and I have switch to pay as you go TracPhone. We hardly use our cells except for when we travel, and most other plans give lots of minutes but we never use them so it's a waste of money….We can now buy as we need to and our cell service averages around ten bucks per month for our average use and the great part is, if I leave town for a week, I can get a new card of minutes shoudl I get close to loosing them, right online!!!

By: Anonymous

Anonymous — Sat, 23 Apr 2005 15:14:58 +0000

rusty can always get a phone from someone else other than cingular – such as amazon.com or some other independent national wireless retailer. As a side note, the only constant that we can really depend on is change. Adapt rusty – adapt.

By: Anonymous

Anonymous — Sat, 23 Apr 2005 01:50:33 +0000

I love Cingular. I have never had a droped call and their plans are great for me. Mind you I don't care to talk on the phone so I am not on it that often. Which could be why they are perfect for me.

By: Escamoteurettes

Escamoteurettes — Sat, 23 Apr 2005 01:38:31 +0000

The only problem with Sprint is, well, you'd actually have to use Sprint. After almost three years of miserable experiences — dropped calls occupying the top three spots in my top five complaints — we moved all three phones to Cingular.
Sorry about the AT&T folks who are being squeezed. We've been very happy with Cingular for nearly a year now.
John

By: Anonymous

Anonymous — Sat, 23 Apr 2005 01:25:44 +0000

i love sprint, mobile pc this month did a review of the carriers and my vm4500 got best mid priced phone for sprint :)